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Our Homeschool Way

Following is a brief (right) description of how and why we homeschool our children. If you are interested in just certain portions, follow the Quick Links below. Or read the whole story...

Quick Links:

Our Philosophy
Why Classics?
Books that Inspired Us
The Process
The Schedule
The Books

A Classical Education

We have decided to give our children a classical education. One that involves the reading and discussion of many classics, starting with the Bible, and an intense course in writing, grammar and composition. Add to the mix some history, science, music, art, and math, and you've got a great concoction that will complete a beautiful mind!

Warning: I Take a Stand on My Trusty Soapbox :)

The classic side of schooling involves introducing whole books, which encourage careful thought and discussion, and solidify moral values. The types of books that we do not read at all are those which we consider bent, where good is painted as evil and evil is depicted as good.

We all are given light when we come into this world, which comes from Jesus - every man (and woman and child).

John 1:9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. NKJV

It is the act of conforming to the patterns of this world that create those onion layers which hide, and even snuff out, that natural light. This occurs through circumstances, choices, deceptions, etc. Our hearts become hardened and our spirits numb to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. UNLESS...

Jesus is invited into our hearts. He alone breaks the curse that is upon us due to our natural state of being sinners. He is the One who received the curse in our stead.

Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree") NKJV

If you are reading this and have not accepted Jesus as your Savior yet, and feel the prompting (or stirring) in your heart to do so, contact us and we will help you through the next steps. We will rejoice with the angels as your name is written in the Book of Life.
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Back to the Classics

Using the classics helps to keep our minds sharp and our motives and character in check. We read AND discuss the classics. A few years ago, Jared and I read what Plato wrote about Socrates. I then posed the following question to Jared; should we follow an unjust law? A discussion ensued and his answers reflected a good character. His final view was that if it goes against God's law, you do everything in your power to change it; you do not surrender your morals to another man's unjust law.

But we must first know God's law. The Bible is the best classic around and the only place to find out what His Word says. In the Bible we discover what the governing laws are which bring freedom and true joy and peace. There are so many lessons and guiding principles in there. Not for a works-based life, but for a love-based life. A life of love and service to the One who created us, loves us and who saved us. A life that thrives on an intimate relationship with Him.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. NKJV

A note about chewing-gum books such as the 'Nancy Boys' books (as my husband Pete so fondly calls them - really, they are 'The Hardy Boys' and 'Nancy Drew Mysteries,' etc.). We don't encourage them here. They are, in our opinion, books that do not challenge the mind, do not make you think, do not cause you to want to become a better person. They are the equivalent to cartoons. The sentence structure is simple, which discourages brain-work; the conflict does not cause the main character or the antagonist to become a better person. They lack valuable insight into human nature. They are just entertainment. Sure, there's some sleuthing going on, but for great detective novels, try Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books to really get your brain going!
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The Rest of the Story

What inspired us? How do we run our school?

We began with two books:
A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century by Oliver Van DeMille
The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer

There are valuable teachings in both books. A Thomas Jefferson Education taught me some key values such as inspiring my children to learn, letting them play while they are young so that, by the time they reach youth age, it is out of their system. I've let them see me study and loving it. They have developed a love of learning through our example. I use the classics, not textbooks. In addition, I have them write about what they learn, challenge their thinking with questions, don't give them the answers, guide them, mentor them, let them fail. They are taught to perform with excellence.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

The Well-Trained Mind has been a great inspiration. The benefits of a disciplined schooling and the importance of a great classical education are described in great detail. In the words of the authors:

" The Well-Trained Mind is a parent's guide to a do-it-yourself, academically rigorous, comprehensive education - a classical education.

What is classical education?

  • It is language intensive - not image focused. It demands that students use and understand words, not video images.
  • It is history-intensive, providing students with a comprehensive view of human endeavor from the beginning until now.
  • It trains the mind to analyze and draw conclusions.
  • It demands self-discipline.
  • It produces literate, curious, intelligent students who have a wide range of interests and the ability to follow up on them.
  • The Well-Trained Mind is a handbook on how to prepare your child to read, write, calculate, think and understand."

I have seen my children thrive under the program of playing in the early ages. During this time, they learn the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, true and false. The play desire (totally normal for younger children) is fed and satisfied. They are now ready.
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What We Do Today

I started my ten year old Preston on a more rigorous program following the outline of The Well Trained Mind at the beginning of this year - 2009. We had spent the first six months playing and just learning what we wanted with some Math thrown in. He had been at a public school for a couple of years and he had learned to hate school. At the beginning of 2009, God kept telling me it was time to move on. I was feeling restless. That is when He led me to The Well Trained Mind.

So, I set up a new schedule. When I looked at it, I thought to myself, "No way! He'll never be able to do all that." But children really do have the ability to work hard when they are inspired. In fact, they will live up to our expectations. If we coddle them and are afraid to work them too hard, they will deliver. If we inspire them to work hard and to see the value and benefit of it, they will deliver. The people I know with the best work ethics and self-discipline are those that have been brought up working the farm with their parents. They know how to get up early, whether they feel like it or not, to feed the animals. They know how to push when they don't have much strength left.

Preston struggled the first few weeks with just trying to fit the basics in. What I consider the basics for my family are: Scripture, Grammar, Writing, Spelling, Cursive, Memorization, and History. But with some incentives, he started to deliver. By the end of the second month, he was doing the whole program by 3:00 in the afternoon! He has now set up his own schedule where he gets up at 6:00 a.m. and does the things he can without me. By 9:00 a.m. we are ready to attack the other things. And by early afternoon, he is off doing his own thing whether it is playing with friends, reading a book, drawing, writing, bike riding, playing football, etc. It has been an amazing thing to see.

The more I pushed, the more he delivered; and with it came a new sense of self-esteem for him. He revels in the new knowledge that his brain is soaking up at amazing rates!
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The Schedule

This is what I have outlined for the day:

  • Daily
    • 15-20 min of Scripture reading and discussion. It's been fun because sometimes we pull out the laptop and go look at the things that they describe in the Bible such as The Ark of the Covenant, or go visit the lands using Google Earth.
    • 40-60 min of Math
    • 15 min of Spelling
    • 20 min of Grammar
    • 20 min of Writing
    • 15 min of Memorization
    • 10 min of Cursive
    • 30 min of History - one lesson plus map work. We break out all the atlases we own and check out the lay of the land and where these things take place.
    • 40-60 min of supplemental reading on the subject of history we are studying. Most times, I'm the one who has to say that we are done because he could go on for much longer!
  • Weekly
    • 30-60 min of Science (two or three times a week)
    • 60 min of Art once a week
    • 60 min of Music once a week
    • 30 min of Latin twice a week
  • On Their Own
    • 60 min of independent reading on whatever he chooses (this is included in his reading before lights out at bedtime)

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The Books and Process

Most of the books I use are the ones recommended in The Well Trained Mind. After checking out the books, I have found that I am very happy with the recommendations. Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer have written some excellent books that the kids and I have enjoyed tremendously. These cover our History, Grammar, Writing, Memorization, Narration, etc.

Math

Preston is doing Saxon Math 5/4. I consider it a great Math program as it keeps reviewing old material throughout the year. It is time consuming. Preston will spend anywhere from 30-60 minutes a day depending on the material he is working on. Four times a week is sufficient to get through the book in a school year.

Spelling

Spelling Workout (Curriculum Press), is the program we use. Preston is on Spelling Workout D. Usually, he does one lesson a day with the review test the next day. Each lesson gives a Spelling Tip that we go over. The program goes up to Spelling Workout H at which point we will decide what to do next.

Grammar

We are using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 3 and 4 written by Jessie Wise (Peace Hill Press). This has been an invaluable way to teach Grammar. A lot of memorizing goes on, which Preston has used over and over again. I've seen him stop at a word in a sentence and go through what he has memorized to identify it, or to see how to correctly make it plural. The best part is when his eyes light up and he excitedly exclaims, "Oh! Now I know why I've memorized that!" I confess to having learned stuff, too. :)

Writing

Another great book we use by Susan Wise Bauer is Writing With Ease (Peace Hill Press). This has been good for Preston to learn how to narrate, take dictation, and do copywork. He has gone from wanting to retell a story pretty much word for word, to identifying the skeleton of the story and writing it down. He is also learning how to listen to complex sentences dictated to him and writing them down correctly. Copywork is important for them to learn proper sentence structure.

Memorizing

I have followed suit and started memorizing things with Preston. We memorize lists, poems, scriptures, latin words, etc. The reason I mention myself in this paragraph is because I've seen a great benefit to doing this. Since I've been memorizing, I've not forgotten people's names or what I went to a room to do, like I was starting to do. In addition, I find myself more observant of the world around me. If this benefits while I am older, how much more will it benefit children? I have seen great strides in my children's thinking patterns since they started memorizing. Focus has improved tremendously also.

Cursive

We use the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Series, Preston is on Handwriting with a Simplified Alphabet: Grade 4 Student Book. I put Jared on it also and I have seen a marked improvement in their cursive handwriting. That's saying a lot for Jared! That boy writes like a boy!

History

Ahh.. my new favorite subject. I confess to hating history as a younger person. I could get A's in all the other subjects and skate by with a D in History. And the D came about because I talked my way out of the F! Yes, I know - great persuasive powers. Then I started history with Preston using The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child series by who else? Susan Wise Bauer. No, I'm not one of her groupies, but I confess to seeing great growth and advancement in my kids' education while using most of her material. History has become interesting and exciting. We sit down with her book, Activity Book, Test Book, and supplemental reading that she has recommended, and we will spend sometimes two hours a day reading, looking at maps, learning, and discussing.

How powerful has it been? Here is a great example:
Erin is like me and has never liked History either. I asked her to sit down and read one chapter. She groaned, she moaned, she prevaricated, then obeyed. The result? She couldn't put the book down! She can't wait to get through a chapter and show off what she has learned. She sometimes will go through two or three chapters a day.

We are in the process of going through all four eras (The Ancients, The Middle Ages, Early Modern Times, and The Modern Age) quickly so that there is a good foundation. Then we will focus on Ancient History alone next year. Each book gets a year of study and includes recommendations for supplemental reading which has truly made history come alive for us. In addition, we use the Kingfisher Encyclopedia of History, and the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History. I use Will Durant's 11 volumes of The Story of Civilization for my knowledge to supplement the teaching.

Preston impresses older teenagers when he rattles off facts about Hammurabi, or Sargon, or how the Christian Fish Symbol came about. He has gone from wanting to be an Egyptologist, to a Roman, to a Greek, an Archaelogist, a Celt - you get the picture. He assimilates and lives what he learns.

Science

I confess to not doing a very organized approach to Science at this point. We pick up books in the Library from Janice Van Cleave such as Science Through the Ages or Science Through the Seasons and read them, do the experiments, find other books to supplement the learning and try to use nature as much as possible.

We started with the Solar System, which led to drawing the Geocentric view of the Solar System and then the Heliocentric view, followed by a discussion on meteors, which drove us to Antelope Island for a campout to watch the Lyrids Meteor Showers. In addition, we got to see Venus eclipsed by the moon. It was great! A slideshow is forthcoming.

And it all started out with one little lesson...

Latin

This has been very fun! We use Latina Christiana I: An Introduction to Christian Latin (Memoria Press). The kids are starting to pick up on where some our English words stem from. It also helps by reinforcing grammar. We learned the phrase, "Veni, vidi, vici" on the same day that we studied about Julius Caesar who uttered that phrase. "I came, I saw, I conquered." We spent the weekend coming, seeing and conquering and exclaiming the Latin phrase.

Music

What I've done this year is to find out the birthday of a famous classical musician and spend the week learning about the musician and listening to his music. It has made music come alive for Preston.

Art

We use Drawing with Children by Mona Brooke. Preston has a friend come over to do it with us. We've enjoyed this one tremendously.

There! I think that about wraps it up. If you have any questions or need more info, just contact me and let me know.

One last note that I thought was extremely important. Books can be expensive. I have found many classic books at thrift shops. And Amazon has become a very good friend to me. :)